In a rapidly changing world,it is important for organisations such as Democracy Reporting Inteational (DRI) to take some time to think and re-examine their approaches to democracy support. This is how Urdur Gunnarsdottir,Chair of DRI’s board,puts it: “We constantly need to re-evaluate how we support democracy because we see new challenges being thrown at us,both from states and technology. It can be frustrating at times,but we all realise how incredibly important it is. [Democracy] is such a fundamental issue we have to protect. If we don’t do it,we have no idea what is behind the coer”.
Ms Gunnarsdottir shared this with us at our 2023 Annual Meeting,a gathering of our executive team,staff,colleagues from DRI’s country offices,board members and shareholders to discuss the organisation’s future trajectory.u202f
Held on 8-9 June,most discussions this year focused on our new programmatic strategy,which DRI started developing in early 2023. With our wide range of expertise and the diverse perspectives from colleagues across the organisation,we are looking to identify the best approaches to further DRI’s mission of strengthening democracy worldwide.u202fu202f
This was also the first time that Urdur Gunnarsdottir attended the Annual Meeting in her capacity as chair of the Board,a position she took up in September 2022. Regarding the work of DRI’s Board of Directors,she shared the following with us:u202fu202f
“We come from all spheres of life,we come from different geographical regions,and we try to bring as much expertise and good ideas to the work of DRI. We are trying to see where we can be of help to DRI’s work and enrich it”.
Also new to our Annual Meeting were Board Members Mikheil Benidze and Sameera Mehra,who joined our Board of Directors last year. Sameera is a Director of Networking & Alliances at WINGS,while Mikheil brings over a decade of experience promoting democracy at The Inteational Society for Fair Elections and Democracy (ISFED) and Zinc Network.u202f
Mikheil Benidze shared that he sees it as an honour to contribute to DRI as he sees democracy challenged everywhere but especially in Easte Europe,where the Russian war against Ukraine continues to affect the region.u202fu202f
“If we fold into these aggressive authoritarian regimes and their demands,if that is the trend,then it will spread out everywhere,and we will see democracy challenged everywhere”,said Mikheil. u202f
At DRI’s Annual Meeting,we were able to reflect on past achievements and brainstorm fresh and innovative ideas,many of which we hope to reflect in our future programmatic strategy.u202fu202f